Every day, thousands of tourists stop in Florence’s piazza Duomo while tour guides gesture towards the copies of The Gates of Paradise, the golden east doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni. Fewer make the effort of circling the building to look at the other two sets of doors, which, until just recently, were the originals.
Earlier in 2013, TF reported that the north doors, also by Lorenzo Ghiberti and dating to 1403-24, were going to be removed, restored and replaced by copies, following the path taken by their younger sister, the east doors, which were restored over 27 years at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. The now restored doors are preserved in a nitrogen-filled case in the Museo dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore.
The North doors are the first set that Ghiberti created for the Baptistery, having won the job in one of the most important concorsi ever developed in Florence. He created 28 bronze relief panels representing New Testament stories, church fathers and the evangelists, working within the limit of the quatrefoil shape.
The restoration now in progress has revealed a surprising find. Superintendent of Florence’s Opificio delle Pietre Dure Marco Ciatti explained that ‘a striking discovery is the gilding, which was hidden by a black layer caused by pollution [and by the natural oxidization of the bronze], but even more striking is Ghiberti’s incredible detail in the figures, an unreachably high quality.’
The discovery will change the way art historians compare this work to the later one, since they did not know that it, too, was gilded, providing for a new understanding of the work of mid-career Ghiberti. The aesthetic impact of the work, which for centuries has been praised for its deep bronze patina, is now totally altered as ‘Ghiberti the goldsmith’ – for that was his first occupation – comes to light.
As restorers have learned from the experience working on the Gates of Paradise, for which they had to develop specialised lasers and other tools, work on the north doors is expected to proceed quickly in order to be completed and installed at the Opera del Duomo museum by the end of 2015, when the museum will reopen in its greatly expanded form.
